Lesson Plan

Name: Mallory Pehrson Date of lesson: May 2017

Lesson Title: Surface Area of Rectangular Prisms

Fundamental Mathematics Concepts (with concept descriptions):
A three dimensional shape, or solid, is a figure that takes up space and is bounded on all sides.
The surfaces of three dimensional figures are made up of two dimensional figures.
Two dimensional figures have different attributes than 3D figures.
o Two dimensional figures are flat and the space they occupy is called area, measured in square units.
o Three dimensional figures are solids that can be packed or filled and have volume, which is measured in cubic units.
Surface is the outside part or outermost layer of something.
Surface area is the total area of the surface of a three-dimensional object. Surface area is measured in square units.
The surface area of a rectangular prism is the area of all six faces added together.
A net is a useful tool for finding surface area of a solid because it shows all of the two-dimensional faces of the solid and their
dimensions.
Mathematical Goal(s) for the Lesson: SWBAT find the surface area of a rectangular prism (possibly using the shapes net) by finding
the sum of the areas of all of the 2D rectangles.
Common Core (give details including chapter and verse): 6.G.4: Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles
and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and
mathematical problems.
Tools for Enhancing Discourse (materials needed for the lesson): Per student One Ghirardelli bar, one pencil, one task worksheet
Considering a Sequence of Lessons:
Previous lesson: Volume of right rectangular prisms with fractional edge lengths
This lesson: Surface area of right rectangular prisms
Subsequent lesson: Surface area of triangular prisms
Responses to Student Thinking/Formative
Lesson Plan Sequence Anticipated Student Thinking
(What tasks will you pose? What clarifying, probing Assessment
Time (What do you anticipate student thinking (What will you look for and listen for as indicators and
questions might you ask? What information and
to look like and sound like?) evidence of understanding and how will you respond to
notation might you provide?)
student thinking?)
Hook: This will hook students into the
activity and get them excited about the task at
hand.
Guess what? Today is a big day! You have
been hired by Ghirardelli as a packaging
engineer. Your first big project in your new
job has to do with the amount of foil
packaging covering their Ghirardelli
Chocolate squares. They want to use less foil
to cover their chocolate squares.
Can you think of a product that uses WAY
too much packaging for whats actually inside
the package? Turn and tell your neighbor.
Material Distribution: Hand out task and
Ghirardelli chocolate square to each student.
(Let students know that they will be able to
eat the chocolate at the end of class, but not
before.
Stop and Jot: Students are asked to
brainstorm and write independently.
What is missing? What information do you
need in order to solve this problem?
Share Out: Call on students to share their
responses to the stop and jot.
Presentation of Dimensions: The Ghirardelli
chocolate square is 1.5 by 1.5 by 0.25.
(length by width by height)
5 min What is Ghirardelli?
What is a packaging engineer?
Why would Ghirardelli want to
use less foil?
Chips have way too big of a bag
for the amount of chips inside
1 min Students will be waiting patiently
for their materials.
4 min I need to know the size of the
chocolate.
What are the dimensions of the
chocolate bar?
Where does the foil go?
4 min Will there be extra foil on the
sides?
What type of shape is the
Ghirardelli chocolate?
What do I know about that shape?
How many faces does that shape
have?
1 min I dont get how that helps me.
I still dont know what to do.
If the clarifying questions on the left under
anticipated student thinking do not come up
naturally, I will ask them to check for students
understanding. I will have students turn and
talk about the questions and then I will cold
call to get an accurate view of understanding.
N/A
If students understand, they should be writing
about attributes of the Ghirardelli bar that
have to do with the size and shape of it in
particular the dimensions.
I will start the share out by calling on students
that wrote general ideas down about the
Ghirardelli bars size and then move to
students that more specifically wrote about
the length, width, and height.
N/A
Task Work Time: Students will work with
partners to complete the task.
x min I dont know where to start.
What do I do with those
numbers?
What do those numbers have to
do with the Ghirardelli bar and
the foil?
I will look for diagrams/nets of the Ghirardelli
bar on students papers. I will look for
dimensions labeled.
I will look for students finding the area of the
faces of the chocolate bar and adding them
together.
I will look for students taking short cuts
realizing that there are congruent faces
opposite each other.
Questioning:
- How does the foil cover the
Ghirardelli bar? What parts of the
chocolate will the foil cover?
- Can you draw a picture of the foil that
will cover the Ghirardelli bar?
- What do you know about the
size/shape of the foil that will cover
the Ghirardelli bar?
- How could you find the foil needed to
cover just one part of the bar? How
about the top?
If a group finishes quickly, I will extend their
thinking by asking if the amount of foil they
found is actually realistic. (Its not, you would
need a bit of overlap in the foil in order to
make sure the foil stays in place.) Then I
would ask them to create another diagram
with realistic dimensions for the foil
wrapping, but that is not wasteful. If a group
needs further extension, I would ask them to
use their Ghirardelli bar and their work to
determine how much packaging the company
will save on each bar with their new
packaging design.
Share Out:
I will ask students to share whether they agree
or disagree with each of the methods shared
and to explain the similarities/differences
between the methods.
During the discussion, I will give students the
vocabulary word to describe the mathematical
concept they were working with throughout
the task surface area.
Exit Ticket:
Write your own definition of surface area and
how it relates to the foil covering a
Ghirardelli bar.
x min Students will come up to the
document camera to present their
work to the class.
the method and why it works and then be able
2 min Students will complete the exit
ticket independently before
leaving class.
As students are working, I will take notes
about specific groups solutions that I would
like to share with the class. I will show work
on the document camera beginning with the
least sophisticated (diagram with area of each
individual piece) and moving toward the most
sophisticated (2 2 + 4). This way, all
students will be more apt to be able to access
the least sophisticated method and understand
to make connections and see patterns between
the methods as they become more
sophisticated.
Surface area is the amount of space (measured
in square units) covering all of the outside
faces of a 3D shape.
It relates to the foil covering the Ghirardelli
bar because the amount of foil needed to
cover each face of the chocolate is the area of
each face and when you add those areas
together, you get the surface area of the
chocolate bar (or the amount of foil needed).